"That's right." His hand moves from my clit to my stomach, protective and possessive. I’m beyond showing now, and his grip helps ease the pressure of my bump. "Mine. My wife. My family. And anyone who threatens you dies.”
"Yes," I cry out. "Yes. Kill them. Protect us. Do whatever you have to do."
The words push him over the edge. He groans, rhythm faltering, and I feel him pulse inside me as he comes.
The feeling sends me over too. I shatter, clenching around him, pleasure tearing through me so intensely I actually sob with it.
We stay like that for a moment. Connected. Panting. His forehead pressed between my shoulder blades.
"Fuck," he breathes. "That was?—"
"Everything." I finish. "That was everything."
He withdraws carefully, and I wince slightly at the sensation. He's immediately there with a warm cloth, cleaning me gently, checking to make sure I'm okay.
"Did I hurt you?"
"No." I’m sagging against the vanity, completely boneless. "It was perfect. You were perfect."
Adrian lifts me, carrying me to the bed. We collapse together, tangled in sheets, and he pulls me against his chest.
"I meant it," I say quietly. "I'm yours. Completely. No more fighting. No more distance."
His arms tighten around me. "You have no idea what you just gave me."
"I do." I press my hand over his heart.
"I love you." The words come out rough. Raw. Like they've been torn from somewhere deep inside him.
I close my eyes. "I know."
I don't say it back. Adrian is saying the words I need to hear, but he’s not a man of words. He knows I love him. I just gave him everything.
His hand finds my stomach, protective and possessive. "I'll find him," he says. "Gabriel. I'll end this. For you. For our son."
"I know you will."
"And then what?"
"Then we move forward." I look up at him. "As a family. As partners. As whatever this is."
"As husband and wife," he corrects. "In every sense of the word."
"Yes." I kiss him softly. "As husband and wife."
We lie there in the quiet, and for the first time since this all began, I feel at peace.
Not because I'm free. I'm not.
But because I've stopped fighting the cage.
And maybe that's the only kind of freedom.
CHAPTER 29
Sera
Three months.
